Detroit @ Tampa Bay preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 14, 2019 ) Tampa Bay 5, Detroit 4

The Tampa Bay Lightning will try to avoid another flat start and continue their dominance in the series when they go for a 16th straight regular-season victory over the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night. The Lightning were outshot 18-0 and trailed by two goals against Montreal on Saturday before fighting back for a 5-4 victory, improving to 12-2-0 versus Atlantic Division foes this season.

Tampa Bay received the first of two goals from red-hot Alex Killorn in the final minute of the first period and the veteran left wing told reporters: “It’s a step in the right direction. You come into the locker room and it’s a lot more positive, and I think it helped us moving forward in the second.” The Lightning have not lost a regular-season game against the Red Wings since Nov. 3, 2015 and play the first of four versus their division rivals after both teams played the night before. NHL-worst Detroit suffered its fifth straight loss Saturday at Florida after coughing up a two-goal lead in a 5-4 setback against the Panthers, but the effort was something they would like to build on going forward. “One of our best games in a while,” Red Wings center Dylan Larkin told reporters. “We played fast, stuck together. Coming out of the (Christmas) break, there’s a couple areas we can clean up and be sharper.”

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, FS Sun (Tampa Bay)

ABOUT THE RED WINGS (9-27-3): Leading scorer Tyler Bertuzzi (30 points) saw his three-game goal streak come to an end Saturday while Larkin had two points to tie injured Anthony Mantha for second on the team with 24. Rookie Filip Zadina chipped in with an assist against Florida to give him nine points in 14 games this season while defenseman Filip Hronek set up one goal Saturday to become the fourth Detroit player to reach 20 points. Jimmy Howard got the start in net and made 25 saves to take the loss, which could put backup Cal Pickard (0-2-0, .818 save percentage) between the pipes Sunday.

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (19-13-4): Victor Hedman tied the franchise record for most assists by a defenseman in a game with four Saturday to move into second on the team with 36 points. Captain Steven Stamkos tied Brayden Point for the team lead with his 14th goal Saturday and added an assist to reach 800 points in his career while combining with linemates Anthony Cirelli and Killorn for seven points and a plus-12 rating. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves in Saturday’s win and will likely hand the net to backup Curtis McElhinney (3-4-2, .903 SP) after stopping 32-of-34 shots in a loss at Washington last time out.

OVERTIME

1. Detroit’s veteran C Frans Nielsen had a goal Saturday and remains one assist shy of 300 for his career.

2. Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov was kept off the scoresheet Saturday, but tops the team with 40 points - nine in the past seven games.

3. The Lightning lead the league in power-play percentage (29.4) and the Red Wings are last in penalty killing (72.1).

PREDICTION: Lightning 5, Red Wings 2